Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-11

they can be bought only by actual
settlers and not more than
( $40 acres each. If this difficulty can be
Obyiated we viii buy your lands 10 large
blocks. The solution Of that question
was the lease Iaw-tha la1d monopoly
law. The act of 1888, which authorized
! the organization of the land board, and
/ the leasing Of the school lands for q term
Of not over ten years. This law has
effectuaIIy disposed Of the railroad lands
/ by the wholesale, and done AWAY with
their emigrant agency business;
it has tied up the school lands in the
hands of the cattle kings for ten wears, it
has iGagnrated land monopoly in Texas,
which has checked emigration and laid
al embargo upon labor in the west, aud
| upon the productions Of the soil. How
this legislation was procured | win leave
to con -Cture. 1t is significant that at the
I first Democratic convention after the
/ passage CT that act, which met ia Houston
in August, S84, the Democratic party
| Incorporated in their platform q plank,
the sixth article indorSing this act of the
Legislature, thus adopting the lease law
as Democratic measure.
Now, is this Democracy? l think not.
If there ever was land monopoly it Oc-
ours to me that this is one; mOnstrous in
its conception, and whitening, blightiugt
destructive in its effects upon the -prinCi-
plies of Democracy. 1t turns over the
public domain of Texas to the
mOneyed lords of earth, and bars
the doors of our state to that
stream OF immigration which was maklnga
camp ground of her beautiful Drairies.
1t Will not do to say that the lease law
hCll Il To-,
The law says so, but it IS dead letter.
No working man Will buy 100 or $40
acres of the school lands which has been
leased to q cattle king. No sane man
would undertake 10 settle home for his
family where he would aEtsgoIize such 3
nelghbOr.
This question has not been opened up
to the people yet. The powers that in
augurated it have suppressed it. They
have blinded some and bulldOZed others,
but 1t will come TO the front IN due tine
end 1t viii not be q regr0ach to be known
IS free grass advocate. The caildren's
grass is catch word and q deIusi0n.
Ten years hence the school land would be
worth no more thsu it is now under this
lease system. Agriculture is GiscOur-
aged and inhibited where those lands lie.
Whole counties are Wirsd in, locked
up, against habitatiOn, agriculture, the
art9 and sciences AMI the Tcfnemenrs Of
social life. The Old Texan who was per
maps born and raised on the frontier and
spent his young days 10 driving back the
savage, must gather up his family and his
100 or 200 head of cattle, must abandon
his little farm at whatever pI,tanCe he can
get for it from the master of the herd.
who lives perhaps in New York or, Scot
land, and seek home wherever he can
This is my view of the lard question In
Texas, of the lease law and its effects.
If l am wrong | would be corrected. l
challenge fair criticism. II the present
system is correct it should De advocated,
explained and established, not by the de-
nunciation of free grass men and their
ideas, but by argument. II this can not
be done, let the law be repealed. The
people are waiting and listening for
solid, tangible and intelligent solution of
this question. 1t is the great question of
state policy. 1t will not down at the
bidding. II. F. O'NEAL.